Revamped Tier Levels Coming Soon

[PescadoAmarillo]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

I have it on good authority that @PescadoAmarillo is not all that "old".  They are still younger retirees.  We are not far from their age range and don't think of us as old.

😉

 

Haha. Thank you!  Although we spent yesterday hiking in the mountains above 10000 feet elevation and I can assure you that I feel my age plus about 30 years today. DH, on the other hand, is, as I type, running in a 7.5 mile race up a mountain. As for technology…yeah, we’re safe there. We can use non-crap apps with ease. 

I guess I just need to stop thinking about all those folks who talk about the great casino offers they get. Apparently almost 20 years of steady revenue from us is worth less to Princess than a few thousand $ spent gambling. 
 

 

 

 

[ceilidh1]

It's been far too long since we cruised, and my memory is hazy...but I just did some math and I think that, for us, we can still end up coming out ahead even with the loss of benefits (please correct me if I'm wrong - I've always been too lazy to do the math before).

 

I sail with my teen (pax 2) and my 10 year old (pax 3). All 3 of us are elite. We have sometimes purchased Plus, just for the ease of it and because the pricing seemed reasonable. Most times, the mini-bar set up, the loyalty credit,  and our free wifi minutes have been sufficient to not need to purchase it. Now that has changed...

 

The way I see it, if I purchase Plus and then call to remove it from pax 3 (I'm 99.9% certain it's permitted to remove from kids), that's a savings of $560 on a 14 day cruise. I would then buy him the basic soda package (he doesn't need coffee...) and pay the crew incentive out of that savings. I still come out ahead - he doesn't have internet use, so here is my question (that I can't recall). If pax 1 and 2 have Plus, is that 4 device or only for that passenger/1 device? If he can log in using our minutes, then we are home free...

 

Am I missing something obvious?

[RRFan]

57 minutes ago, roamerfromtexas said:

I agree with pescado amarillo.  I think Princess threw those of us who cruise extensively under the bus.  I understand the need for revenue, but 164 days booked for next summer and fall at higher prices and minimal fcc isn’t peanuts.  We aren’t rich but enjoy cruising and save accordingly so we can.

 

 

I totally agree!!  I do agree that some Elite's are NOT the big spenders on board per cruise, BUT they cruise 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or more times a year because they can afford to.  The big spenders seem to cruise once a year or once every 2 or 3 years, or even ONLY ONE cruise as a bucket list item.  How does that work out for PCL?  It doesn't!  The Elite's who cruise frequently are their bread and butter.  The once a year cruisers are their jelly & jam.  Without the bread, the jelly & jam can't sustain them!  PCL had better come up with another level or something for P's & E's to work toward or they will be happy to look elsewhere for a cruise experience.  In the 12 years we've been cruising, the level of product excellence (and perks) on PCL has steadily declined, but we continued to cruise with them because of the perks.  Taking that away from us is a disastrously bad idea in my opinion.

[majortom10]

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Edited July 3, 2021 by majortom10

[dog]

1 hour ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

Haha. Thank you!  Although we spent yesterday hiking in the mountains above 10000 feet elevation and I can assure you that I feel my age plus about 30 years today. DH, on the other hand, is, as I type, running in a 7.5 mile race up a mountain. As for technology…yeah, we’re safe there. We can use non-crap apps with ease. 

I guess I just need to stop thinking about all those folks who talk about the great casino offers they get. Apparently almost 20 years of steady revenue from us is worth less to Princess than a few thousand $ spent gambling. 
 

 

 

 

I sincerely hope I did not offend you. 
 

I am in total agreement with you. 

[majortom10]

17 hours ago, dog said:

You now choose an embarkation time on the MedallionClass app when it becomes available 

What happens if you havent got a smart device so cannot download the "app" to pick your check-in time

[dog]

9 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

What happens if you havent got a smart device so cannot download the "app" to pick your check-in time

Contact Princess and ask them what you can do. 

[Tedferg]

14 hours ago, scottca075 said:

 

For a tad more they can move over to Silversea or Seabourn.

You said this in response to a comment about Viking versus Princess. Would you elaborate on what a 'Tad' is ? When I have done quick checks on Oceania versus Princess the price difference was significant.

[suzyed]

On 7/1/2021 at 4:07 PM, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

 

Princess is the only "mainstream" line with self serve launderettes on all ships, but not all Princess ships have a full wraparound promenade deck.

 

Viking has self-serve launderettes and full wraparound promenade decks on all Ocean ships.  Same with Cunard and Crystal Ocean.

 

Carnival has self-serve launderettes on some older ships, but those ships do not have full wraparound promenade decks.  The newer ships with the full wraparound promenade deck only have ironing rooms.

 

Other lines with launderettes include Oceana, Azamara and Regent, but their ships do not have full wrap around promenade decks.

 

Holland America has full wraparound promenade decks on all ships but no self serve launderettes, but they do offer unlimited laundry/pressing service for $7-9/day/cabin (depending on sailing region), which is not a bad value.  The service is fast and clothes come back looking great!

Cunard's Queen Mary 2 has has self serve launderettes too!

 

[Tedferg]

1 hour ago, majortom10 said:

What happens if you havent got a smart device so cannot download the "app" to pick your check-in time

On the App it says something to the effect ' If you do not choose a boarding group you will be assigned to one'. Now with no device I don't know how you would know which group ! You would be doing regular sign in at the pier and I suppose they would tell you then and more than likely they would let you board at that time, rather than saying you must come back later.

 

I just noticed that you said 'check in time' I assumed you meant 'Boarding Time'. I think you can check in any time, it is Boarding Time that is assigned. Kinda like Hotel California, ' You can check out any time you wish, but you can never leave'

Edited July 3, 2021 by Tedferg

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, ceilidh1 said:

so here is my question (that I can't recall). If pax 1 and 2 have Plus, is that 4 device or only for that passenger/1 device? If he can log in using our minutes, then we are home free...

Whoever has the login credentials could share them with the sibling, but only one logged in at a time.

[caribill]

2 hours ago, manunia said:

 what revenue would come out from removing priority embarkation /disembarkation?

 

 

 

The selection of boarding times (by passenger or by default Princess) is due to the pandemic in order to actually lower the number of people in the terminal at one time. It is not an attempt to remove a Captain's Circle benefit.

 

The question is, what will Princess do when the pandemic is over? Sister cruise line Carnival has required selection of boarding time for several years. Sister cruise line HAL has not.

 

There is a minor cost savings to requiring the boarding times as Princess no longer needs to set up and staff for refreshments on shore for the elite/suites passengers until boarding starts.

 

As far as debarkation at the end of the cruise, there has been no priority benefit at all.  If you get assigned a time you do not want, any passenger can go to the customer service desk and exchange it for the desired time. You do not have to be Elite to do this.

[caribill]

4 minutes ago, Tedferg said:

On the App it says something to the effect ' If you do not choose a boarding group you will be assigned to one'. Now with no device I don't know how you would know which group ! You would be doing regular sign in at the pier and I suppose they would tell you then and more than likely they would let you board at that time, rather than saying you must come back later.

 

Princess has stated that you will not be allowed to check in before your time and will be turned away of showing up before your assigned time.

 

They also say you should wait until your assigned time away from the terminal due to pandemic restrictions.

[suzyed]

1 hour ago, RRFan said:

I totally agree!!  I do agree that some Elite's are NOT the big spenders on board per cruise, BUT they cruise 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or more times a year because they can afford to.  The big spenders seem to cruise once a year or once every 2 or 3 years, or even ONLY ONE cruise as a bucket list item.  How does that work out for PCL?  It doesn't!  The Elite's who cruise frequently are their bread and butter.  The once a year cruisers are their jelly & jam.  Without the bread, the jelly & jam can't sustain them!  PCL had better come up with another level or something for P's & E's to work toward or they will be happy to look elsewhere for a cruise experience.  In the 12 years we've been cruising, the level of product excellence (and perks) on PCL has steadily declined, but we continued to cruise with them because of the perks.  Taking that away from us is a disastrously bad idea in my opinion.

Agree!  We have only been cruising with PCL since our first Ruby Princess cruise in 2010.  We are now Elite but have yet to get to the level of getting the OBC perks and now it's gone.  Sad.  
We usually do 2-3 cruises a year and Princess has been our cruise line of choice with a few MSC and Cunard and a Celebrity cruise thrown in the mix.  We have cruised Princess instead of RCI which was our previous cruise line of choice. We still love Princess but now we may again be looking back to RCL  for future cruises.  

 

[Tedferg]

3 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Whoever has the login credentials could share them with the sibling, but only one logged in at a time.

Will this lead to another 'Sharing' dilemma ? Pax with Plus can sell / share access to those who only need to print Boarding Pass for flight home 🙂 🙂 

[Tedferg]

3 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

Princess has stated that you will not be allowed to check in before your time and will be turned away of showing up before your assigned time.

 

They also say you should wait until your assigned time away from the terminal due to pandemic restrictions.

I had not seen that, wonder if they make a distinction between 'checking in' and 'boarding'. i.e. a person with Medallion will have an assigned boarding group and would not check in, whereas a person with no smart access might not be aware of scheduled times and would go to check in. There were always 'scheduled' times, right ? Or where they just 'suggested'. I understand Covid-19 changes things but previously we just checked in when we arrived.

[RRFan]

4 minutes ago, suzyed said:

Agree!  We have only been cruising with PCL since our first Ruby Princess cruise in 2010.  We are now Elite but have yet to get to the level of getting the OBC perks and now it's gone.  Sad.  
We usually do 2-3 cruises a year and Princess has been our cruise line of choice with a few MSC and Cunard and a Celebrity cruise thrown in the mix.  We have cruised Princess instead of RCI which was our previous cruise line of choice. We still love Princess but now we may again be looking back to RCL  for future cruises.  

 

We started cruising in ‘08 and did the 2nd in ‘10 (both HAL). We did our first PCL in ‘12 and was upgraded at the dock to a balcony from OV. We were hooked. Hubs retired in ‘13 and we started doing multiple b2b’s to AK. One summer we did 11 total AK cruises in 3 different b2b2b combos early, mid & late season. One year we were on a Princess ship every month of that year. Our retirement hobby and we loved it. We now have 57 cruises w PCL w 2 on the books for future. We also have cruised  other cruise lines, but concentrated on PCL to climb the loyalty ladder. As they strip that away, we will no longer look exclusively at Princess. Each of our two upcoming cruises went up $170 based solely on loss of benefits. Very disappointing. 

[suzyed]

8 minutes ago, Tedferg said:

I had not seen that, wonder if they make a distinction between 'checking in' and 'boarding'. i.e. a person with Medallion will have an assigned boarding group and would not check in, whereas a person with no smart access might not be aware of scheduled times and would go to check in. There were always 'scheduled' times, right ? Or where they just 'suggested'. I understand Covid-19 changes things but previously we just checked in when we arrived.

Cruiselines....ALL of them seem to be in a state of "flux" at the moment. They are shuffling benefits and perks and such in an effort to help build up their reserves after losing so much during the pandemic. Hopefully as time goes by and everything settles down, new perks and benefits will appear and we can all settle into the "new normal".

[suzyed]

6 minutes ago, RRFan said:

We started cruising in ‘08 and did the 2nd in ‘10 (both HAL). We did our first PCL in ‘12 and was upgraded at the dock to a balcony from OV. We were hooked. Hubs retired in ‘13 and we started doing multiple b2b’s to AK. One summer we did 11 total AK cruises in 3 different b2b2b combos early, mid & late season. One year we were on a Princess ship every month of that year. Our retirement hobby and we loved it. We now have 57 cruises w PCL w 2 on the books for future. We also have cruised  other cruise lines, but concentrated on PCL to climb the loyalty ladder. As they strip that away, we will no longer look exclusively at Princess. Each of our two upcoming cruises went up $170 based solely on loss of benefits. Very disappointing. 

Yup!  Agree.  BTW, we have NEVER been upgraded on Princess, RCI or any of the other lines we have sailed on and we first started cruising in 1980.

[PescadoAmarillo]

1 hour ago, dog said:

I sincerely hope I did not offend you. 
 

I am in total agreement with you. 

Nobody who is in complete agreement with me could ever offend me. 😆

 

Seriously, you didn’t. Not one bit. Peace on. 🙂

[KeepCalmBearOn]

2 hours ago, RRFan said:

I totally agree!!  I do agree that some Elite's are NOT the big spenders on board per cruise, BUT they cruise 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or more times a year because they can afford to.  The big spenders seem to cruise once a year or once every 2 or 3 years, or even ONLY ONE cruise as a bucket list item.  How does that work out for PCL?  It doesn't!  The Elite's who cruise frequently are their bread and butter. 

 

Anyone who knows anything about the economics of cruise ships knows that a cruise line like Princess (or HAL, RCCI, NCl, Celebrity, et al) makes very, very little profit on the room if it sells for book rate. If it is a discounted room, it might be break even or even a small loss. They count on people buying extras on board to make the voyage profitable.

 

Elites are NOT their bread and butter if they are not spending money on extras like specialty restaurants, specialty coffee, bottles of wine, pictures, in the casino, trinkets and clothing, etc.

 

If they can afford to cruise "5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or more times a year" then they can afford the cruise being $100 more. They may not LIKE paying $100, and if it really is an affordability issue, drop the 9th cruise and that will pay for the extra $100 on the other EIGHT cruises they take.

 

1 hour ago, Tedferg said:

You said this in response to a comment about Viking versus Princess. Would you elaborate on what a 'Tad' is ? When I have done quick checks on Oceania versus Princess the price difference was significant.

 

I was talking about someone who was thinking of moving from Princess because of "lost benefits" to Viking. Seabourn and Silverseas are "a tad more" than Viking (not Princess) for equivalent cruises and Oceania can be the same or a tad less than Viking, depending on the cruise and where you book.

 

24 minutes ago, suzyed said:

Agree!  We have only been cruising with PCL since our first Ruby Princess cruise in 2010.  We are now Elite but have yet to get to the level of getting the OBC perks and now it's gone.  Sad.  
We usually do 2-3 cruises a year and Princess has been our cruise line of choice with a few MSC and Cunard and a Celebrity cruise thrown in the mix.  We have cruised Princess instead of RCI which was our previous cruise line of choice. We still love Princess but now we may again be looking back to RCL  for future cruises. 

 

I don't know when you last sailed Royal Caribbean, but it is no longer the cruise line of Song of America and Monarch of the Seas, etc. It is now about climbing walls, surfing machines, bouncy things, sky diving, and all the spectacular amenities like that and having 4,000, 5,000 and 6,000 passengers on them. And oh yeah, MOST of those bells and whistles cost extra.

 

Yes you can still find a 2,000 pax ship at RCCI, but they built the last new one in 2004. Every RCL ship since then has been 3,000+. Every new ship the last 10 years has been 4,000+ and the 5 new ships on order are all 6,000 pax ships.

 

That is why I WILL book an RCL ship in the near future because I will taking grandkids, 15 down to 5 on an Oasis Class ship and book a PCL cruise the next week for Gramma and me to recover from the RCL ship.

 

[caribill]

1 hour ago, Tedferg said:

I had not seen that, wonder if they make a distinction between 'checking in' and 'boarding'. i.e. a person with Medallion will have an assigned boarding group and would not check in, whereas a person with no smart access might not be aware of scheduled times and would go to check in. There were always 'scheduled' times, right ? Or where they just 'suggested'. I understand Covid-19 changes things but previously we just checked in when we arrived.

 

99% of the time they were suggested times in the hopes of keeping the flow of passengers even throughout the process. But, as it did with you, you could arrive at any time and check-in then.

 

The new scheduled times are to deal with the pandemic as they need to limit the number of passengers in the terminal at one time. Supposedly they will be enforced.

[KeepCalmBearOn]

55 minutes ago, suzyed said:

Cruiselines....ALL of them seem to be in a state of "flux" at the moment. They are shuffling benefits and perks and such in an effort to help build up their reserves after losing so much during the pandemic. Hopefully as time goes by and everything settles down, new perks and benefits will appear and we can all settle into the "new normal".

 

I was disappointed that Princess didn't take the opportunity to completely gut the old benefits plan and tiers and start over. They could have placed existing Captain's Circle members in the new tiers based on the new criteria. And the new criteria in my ideal world would not be based on cruises or days, but points, like Celebrity does.

 

The people that Princess should be rewarding and trying to get back on board are those who are the most profitable for the cruise line. THAT is the point of a loyalty program. If you've been on 100, 7 day Princess cruises in an Inside Cabin and not spent a dime more than you had to you aren't as valuable to Princess as a person who has taken 10, 7 day Princess cruises in a Suite, done multiple specialty dining nights, taken excursions, bought alcohol, specially coffee several times a day, etc.

 

My ideal benefits plan would be based on points earned through cabin level commiserate with cost of the cabin and bonus points for total spend.

[AtlantaCruiser72]

2 hours ago, suzyed said:

Cunard's Queen Mary 2 has has self serve launderettes too!

 

Which I noted in my second bullet point when I wrote "Viking has self-serve launderettes and full wraparound promenade decks on all Ocean ships.  Same with Cunard and Crystal Ocean."

 

not trying to be snarky, but just wanted you to know that I know :) LOL

[LACruiser88]

39 minutes ago, scottca075 said:

I was disappointed that Princess didn't take the opportunity to completely gut the old benefits plan and tiers and start over. They could have placed existing Captain's Circle members in the new tiers based on the new criteria.

We were also disappointed that Princess did not do a more comprehensive overhaul of their CC program.  There are too many Elites and there should be more separation between the Platinum and Elite levels.  Here come the Haters!